As of: February 24, 2024, 8:00 a.m
By: Michael Schleicher
Concerned about democracy: the author and lawyer Michel Friedman, who deals with “hatred of Jews” in his new book.
© Jens Hartmann/Münchner Merkur
Michel Friedman has just published his new book “Jewish Hatred,” in which he deals with the terror of Hamas and its consequences.
Michael Schleicher spoke to the journalist about anti-Semitism and a democracy in danger.
An afternoon in the Hotel Bayerischer Hof in Munich: Michel Friedman writes in his new book “Judenhates”
(Michel Friedman: “Judenhates. October 7, 2023”. Berlin Verlag, Berlin/Munich, 112 pages; 12 euros)
about the terror of Hamas and its consequences.
In addition to the horror at the murders and the emerging anti-Semitism, the 67-year-old lawyer and journalist also hints at helplessness in this sometimes quite personal text.
At the same time, he is combative in his analysis of socio-political developments.
After an hour of interview - a strong handshake as a greeting, attentive and precise in the wording - Friedman has to move on: students from Israel and Munich want to talk to him about Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Madeleine Albright published her book “Fascism. A Warning” was published in which the former US Secretary of State also dealt with anti-Semitism. You now call your book “Jewish Hatred,” a much more urgent, brutal title. Does this reflect the development of the past few years?
Michel Friedman:
In recent years we have seen governments become possible again in which anti-democrats or agitators were either junior partners or even formed the government.
What makes this so dangerous?
Michel Friedman:
The moment anti-democrats gain executive power, there is hardly any room left for liberality, freedom and the rule of law.
We have seen how the institutions of power were changed under Trump in Hungary, but also in the USA.
We are currently experiencing this in Poland: the elected Tusk government is not making any progress because PiS people are preventing this in crucial places - right up to the president.
If we look at the social level...
Michel Friedman:
In recent years, hatred has become more socially acceptable.
We have to ask the question: Can a democracy exist with hate?
Or vice versa: Is hate the poison that destroys democracy?
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Michel Friedman:
Where hatred has become commonplace in a society, democracy is no longer possible.
Because this is not about Jews, blacks, Roma and Sinti or the LGBTQ+ community.
It's about Jewish people, it's about black people, it's about gay people.
It's always about people!
The Basic Law states: Human dignity is inviolable.
This means that hatred against people is an attack on the Basic Law - and therefore also an attack on all people.
But anyone who violates human dignity has at the same time buried democracy.
Solidarity with the victims of hate should be a given.
Michel Friedman:
If we learn that hatred is always an attack on people - then we show solidarity with ourselves. Because the attack on one person is always an attack on me.
Sooner or later.
Why has hatred become more socially acceptable?
Michel Friedman:
There are three main reasons for this: the influence of social networks, the international propaganda of right-wing extremism, which is also financed by countries like Russia, and it is due to a culture of debate that is only based on opinions and no longer on arguments.
Can you explain the last point?
Michel Friedman:
You can have any opinion you want.
I find that strange, exciting or whatever.
But the dispute is about arguments.
When we are no longer able to argue, the banality of an opinion without arguments becomes an ever larger balloon.
You have to inflate it with more opinions and emotions, including hatred - after all, there are no arguments.
What does that mean?
Michel Friedman:
This immediately creates the opposition you/us.
This creates exclusion, hatred and violence.
All of this has increased recently.
I would like to take a look at your book. In the first paragraph you describe the exuberance of the music festival in Israel on October 7th. This joy of life only lasts two sentences. Then comes Hamas' terror on pickup trucks. Has the world believed in an idyll for too long that was deceptive?
Michel Friedman:
In recent years we have developed into a depoliticized consumer society, and we have a very decadent relationship with democracy, namely a consumer one.
But a democracy needs committed democrats to survive, otherwise it is an empty shell.
In Germany we have the AfD, a growing party of hate that is passionately supported by its voters.
And we have a population that is at least partially paralyzed, which says it is democratic - but does nothing about it.
Met for a discussion in Munich: Michel Friedman and head of culture Michael Schleicher.
© Jens Hartmann/Münchner Merkur
What follows from this development?
Michel Friedman:
The strengthening on the one hand and the weakening on the other result in the increasing threat to freedom in our country.
Keyword: paralyzed Democrats. After the terrorist attack on Israel, the silence was very loud in many areas of public life.
Michel Friedman:
I filed a missing person report after October 7th and asked where everyone was who was usually there with expressions of solidarity?
Sick?
On holiday?
In any case, I would have needed it when people shouted “Death to the Jews” in Berlin.
As a Jewish person, I would have needed a hug from the population that would have shown me: We stand together.
This didn't happen for weeks - and then very hesitantly.
There were just 10,000 people at the “big” demonstration at the Brandenburg Gate.
More have not found it necessary to express their humanity.
This is a reflection of society.
A different picture emerged in the recent demonstrations, when hundreds of thousands of people across the country took to the streets against the right after the Potsdam secret meeting became known.
Michel Friedman:
Yes, within three days an incredible activity started.
Only Jews seem to find it difficult to feel and express empathy.
Why?
Michel Friedman:
Ask society and not me.
They distinguish hatred of Jews from the right, from the left and the Muslim...
Michel Friedman:
Right-wing extremist anti-Semitism is the most powerful because it has passed through the institutions and sits in parliaments.
Although the AfD was democratically elected, it remains an anti-democratic party.
Islamist anti-Semitism, which is linked to the extreme left in Germany, has also become more dangerous because its willingness to use violence has increased.
And by that I don't mean terror, but the everyday situations on the streets.
In the book you write an emotional letter to your sons...
Michel Friedman:
It's an attempt to give them autonomy.
It's an attempt to make it clear to them that it's not their fault that people hate other people.
I wish that my children could have gone through their childhood easily, that they were granted the naivety of childhood, that they never had to worry about there being any judgment about who they are.
When I was at school, a classmate once called me a “Jew pig.”
I was angry - then my mother said to me: "Michel, always remember: the one who hates is more poisoned than the one who is hated, because the one who hates lives with his hate for 24 hours." The one who hates cannot free himself from his hatred.
The hated one can do that.
There is hope in that.
Michel Friedman:
If I no longer had hope, I wouldn't be able to live anymore.
However, sometimes I have very little.
Reading:
Michel Friedman will present his book on March 16, 2024, 8 p.m., in the Munich Kammerspiele;
Tickets by calling 089/ 233 966 00.